PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEACH

• Have we got sufficient understanding to hypothesize - to start the research?

• Who controls the process?

• When is the right time to stop?

• Teen age mums and contraception

Ethical context – What are the effects of:

1.raising some questions and not others, 2.involving some people in the process (or even apparently only one) and not others, 3.observing some phenomena and not others, 4.making this sense of it and not alternative senses, and 5.deciding to take this action (or ‘no’ action) as a result of research rather than any other action and so on.

Participation• ‘...action research is the way groups of people

can organise the conditions under which they can learn from their own experiences and make this experience accessible to others.’’

• All research involves a social context.

• How would it improve the research if the participants, the community it might impact on and the audience for the research had a role in the planning, doing, reviewing and dissemination of the research?

Key details

• Participation, action and research are not exclusive and permeate all stages of the PAR cycle

• Hard to plan for initially, because you don’t know what is going to happen – the focus often changes over time

• It can involve a wide variety of research methods

Participants1. The researcher/s – the people with

research skills

2. The researched – the people, environments, animals or objects from whom information is gathered

3. The researched for – the people whose lives will be affected by the research. This is called the critical reference group

4. The research users – the people who will use the findings of the research

Action

• Any research process that seems appropriate – qualitative or quantitative

• Will include focus groups, interviews, surveys, case studies, experiments

• Will frequently move from one type of research method to another on different stages of the PAR spiral

• Can involve many methods simultaneously

Benefits• improved relevance to the community; • sharper questions; • enhanced relevance service providers and

funders• better research design (what is asked, by whom,

of whom, when, where and how); • information gained more meaningful (and in

the right language)• better theory developed, greater innovation• higher commitment, better, longer follow up

Challenges• Getting access to the community that

should be the focus of research• Being able to accept that the research

process may be slower than you would like it to be

• Being limited in what you can do or being removed from the project after you have served your usefulness

• Not being acknowledged for the work you have done.

METHODS OF OBSERVATION

Observation: noticing what’s really there

Observational dimensions• Perspective (Degree of training) - unless we

prepare we won’t observe• System level - macro to micro. System -

interaction - behaviour - physiological event• Aspect - presence/absence, quantitative

(duration, frequency, intensity), qualitative (beauty, likeability, skilfulness), meaning.

• Analysis level - one small feature/moment of time through to ongoing total picture

• Context in time - antecedents, behaviours, consequences

Methods of observation• Narrative recording - record everything - text

record, tape, video tape. “I just wanted to talk about the transition through

this hump [in the development of groups] here, which happens at around about the one year period. To work out what these groups are doing over here which is more about service and being there for people who might come and go. Umm, which resonates for me because um ……”

Methods of observation• Event recording - record all instances of a

particular behaviour or eventWord category CountI (or) {me, my, myself, own, mine. . . } 133group (or) {groups, member. . . teams} 113man (or) {men,men/s, guy, he, male. . .} 96people (or) {person, anyone, both.. . } 61children (or) {boy, family, divorce, schools} 18friend (or) {buddy, gunners, mate. . .} 13women alias (or) {she, girls, postnatal} 6

Methods of observation• Interval recording. Count of specified

events/ interval over a a set number of intervals

counsellor/client interaction

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

1 11 21 31 41 51

minutes

culm

ula

tive

in

terv

als

w

he

n t

alk

ing

ob

serv

ed

client

counsellor

Cumulative record of talking

Methods of Observation • Time sampling - Instead of recording over

the whole period of interest observation is done over one or more short periods

Counsellor/client interaction

012345

beginning middle end

5 min time sample interval

min

ute

s ta

lkin

g

pre

sen

t

client

counsellor

Methods of Observation

• Sequential act coding - Behaviours are defined and behavioural sequences are recorded.

Counsellor: l=listening, r=reflecting, o=offering options, i=interrupting, f=affirming

client: d=describing, q=questioning, p=repeating, t=tearful,

Possible sequence: dlqrdrtfqlprpiqo……

t f 80%, q o 25%, p i 15%

Methods of observation

• 1st level: counts presence or absence of an event

• 2nd level quantitative recording – focus measurable aspect such as duration or intensity.

~ Counsellor talks for 13/55 minutes

~ Client talks for 40/55 minutes

~ 2/55 minutes silence

• 2nd level qualitative - degree of engagement

Looking at the people you see on the way to Unitec tomorrow morning

• Find someone you feel is satisfied with life at the moment.

• Observe them and try to identify what features they have that make you think they are satisfied.

• Find someone you feel is not satisfied with life at the moment.

• Observe them and try to identify what features they have that make you think they are not satisfied.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oL1RE8JXaIw

Definition of violenceA violent act is an act of force that physically harms a human

or other animate being. The act may be carried out or just be a credible physical threat

of violence. It may or may not result in visible harm.It may be intentional or accidental. It may be an act of nature or of an animate being.It may involve natural or supernatural beings or force. It may be a credible verbal threat of violence, or verbal

behaviour which increases the probability of physical violence.

The violent act itself may be shown, or only the consequences of the act.

Included are beings that are animate but not ‘human-like’. 

Excluded from this definition are:

attempted but unsuccessful acts of violence,

acts which cause psychological but not physical harm,

offensive language which does not increase the threat of physical harm

violent acts against inanimate objects unless the acts increase the threat of physical harm

Type of incident coding

Assault: I intentional

S sexual

Accidents: U unintentional

ND natural disaster/act of God

Threats: CV clear verbal

NV non-verbal

II indirect inciting

  DK don’t know whether act was intentional or not

NZ2003 TV Violence study

0

3

6

9

12

15

NTVS (US)1997

NTVS (US)simulation

BSC (UK)2001

BSC (UK)simulation

CMPA (US) 2002

CMPA (US)simulation

NZ2003

International Content Analyses

Inci

den

ts/h

our

NZ2003 TV Violence study• Environmental mapping - measuring an

aspect of environment as a predictor of behavioural patterns

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Massey drama1991

Massey dramasimulation

2003

Media Watch1990

Media Watch1992

Media Watch1995

Media watchsimulation

2003

New Zealand Drama Content Analyses

Inci

dent

s/ho

ur

Graphicness of the violence

Presence of blood Close-up of injuries Close-up of action Slow motion used with the fightingDrawn out fight sequences.Drawn out aftermath Replays of violence Sounds of injury occurring Powerful presentations of pain Threatening, frightening music Threatening, frightening lightening or visual environment Accompanying narration that describes pain, injury, fear,

etc

NZ2003 TV Violence study

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

Channels

% o

f p

rogr

amm

es

adult viewing time

children's viewing timeAt least 10 instances of graphicness

% of programmes with moderate to extreme pain

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

TV1TV2

TV3TV4

Prime

Sky1

Sky M

ovies

Nickelo

deon

Total

Channels

%

of

pro

gram

mes

adult viewing time

children's viewing time

Moderate to extreme pain

Key surveys into the impact of TV

• Infant TV watching and ADHD at age 7

• Infant TV watching and Autism in childhood

• TV watching in children and violence in adulthood

• TV watching in children and obesity and diabetes in adulthood

• TV watching in children and low educational achievement in adulthood.

Environmental mapping

Strengths of Observational Data

• Allow one to directly see what people do without having to rely on what they say they do

• Allow relatively objective measurement of behavior • Can be used with participants with weak verbal skills • Good for description • Can give access to contextual factors operating in natural

social settings • Moderate degree of realism (when done outside of the

laboratory)

 

• Reasons for behavior possibly unclear

• Possible reactive and investigator effects when respondents know they are being observed

• Possibility of observer being biased (e.g., selective perception)

• Possibility of observer "going native" (i.e., over identifying with the group being studied)

• Interpretive validity possibly low

Weaknesses of Observational Data-1

Weaknesses of Observational Data-2

• Cannot observe large populations

• Unable to observe some content of interest Dross rate possibly moderately high

• More expensive to conduct than questionnaires and tests

• Data analysis sometimes time-consuming